


Icing and Frosting

by rainsonata



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28817289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainsonata/pseuds/rainsonata
Summary: Cold harsh winters make it hard for Elesis to relax when there is much to do. She takes a break before she is lured out by the smell of freshly baked cookies.





	Icing and Frosting

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

A sweet aroma summoned Elesis to the warm kitchen, eager to escape the cold frost with repaired armor and supplies for an anticipated snowstorm. An assortment of colors danced in her vision, the Empire Sword in awe by the confections laid and spread out on the kitchen counter for all to see. Gumdrops, candy canes, rock candy, blue frosting stuck at the end of a piping bag and sprinkles on a wooden board. Sugar cookies sat on a cooling rack, soft delicate pastries with a golden crisp and had Elesis salivating at the sight of it all. 

Her face glowed from the kitchen’s warmth and having something to fill her stomach after a long day’s work threading through the busy marketplace for many stops and visits. It wasn’t uncommon to find tea and cookies downstairs in the guild house she shared with the rest of her teammates. Not the healthiest options, but they were welcomed in the winter where the weather grew dreary with dark clouds and frosty air freezing her fingers.

Dusting ice off her winter gloves, she tugged them off and grabbed a cookie from the cooling rack, a candy cane with red and white icing curved around the edges. Peppermint candy crunched in her teeth as she took a bite from the top, still warm and chewy from the oven. A fresh minty taste lingered in her mouth, Elesis hummed in delight to the sweet taste melting on her tongue.

Winter nights as a small child and telling stories to Elsword after a dinner of roasted meats while keeping the fire running flashed in the corner of her mind. They had cookies as gifts by a neighbor that rarely lasted beyond a week because of Elsword’s appetite. Elesis smiled at the memory before she heard footsteps in the form of a man with blue hair tied back into a lower ponytail. 

“I…” Elesis covered her mouth, but there was no hiding the crumbs on her fingers and frosting on her left cheek. Glancing at the remaining cookies on the cooling rack, her mind raced with her heart. “Were you still making them?”

“Don’t worry, I’m almost done.” Ciel smiled, “You came in just in time. Want to help?” 

“I don’t bake,” her cheeks turned pink.

“You don’t need to,” he said. “You can help me decorate.”

“Sure!” Elesis grimaced from how loud her laugh came out. Was she out of her mind? She cooked hunting meat from the woods and make a meal out of plants and herbs, but burnt bread was the norm. Well… it can’t be hard to decorate a few pastries!

She squeezed a bottle of food coloring into a ceramic bowl to mix with frosting. Bright cranberry dye pooled at the center of the bowl and drenched the white buttercream, giving it a watery consistency as Elesis gently tossed them together with a metal spoon. It became less liquidized the more she mixed, but it was becoming almost as red as her hair.

“You can use mine,” Ciel gave her the piping bag in his hand.

Was her attempt so poor that Cavalier had to swoop in to save her creation? Her eyes averted, sliding the ceramic bowl over to Ciel. The butler added extra buttercream to balance the color before transferring it over to a piping bag with a spatula, twisting the plastic bag from the top and cutting the tip off with a pair of scissors. 

Tracing the shape of the cookie in her hand was simple enough, outlining the edges with a black outline before filling out the rest with cream colored icing. Now for the head… there it was! She smeared red frosting to make it into a hat with white on the rims. 

“That’s a nice…uh.” Ciel looked up from his snowman cookie, “rabbit?”

“Phoru!” Elesis pouted and pointed to the brown tipped ears. “Can’t you tell?”

“Of course, how could I be so blind?”

Elesis sweat dropped to the man’s haughty laugh and sighed. The butler wasn’t a bad person despite his strange and questionable decision to form a contract with a demon, even if she didn’t agree with it for personal bias reasons. His attempt to hide his mistake was embarrassing to watch and didn’t make alleviate her own.

“I really am crummy at this,” Elesis groaned.

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” he lowered his head. “You just looked tired and I thought you needed a break. I understand if you don’t want to do this anymore, but everyone had a chance to earlier.”

Everyone?

Elesis looked over to Ciel in confusion, perplexed by his strange selection in words. She pursed her lips, biting down to stop her gasp at the platter of cookies opposite to her on the kitchen counter. None of them held the consistency or simplicity Ciel put into his decorated sugar cookies - most of them were done sloppily in an assortment of colors. One of them was a purple cat with a pink scar around angry eyes.

“Did Add do this?” Elesis poked it.

“He said Dynamo will finish it,” Ciel said. He finished icing a star, “Although I think I prefer doing it by hand.”

Add’s cookies had that strange symbol sewn all over his clothes and machines: semicircles overlapping one another to form a power button. There must have been a dozen of cookies of his design! Another had flowers and trees etched into them in amazing detail. Rena’s? A few cookies had blue paw prints, and several had mechanical symbols in pink and gold icing. Those must be Chung and Eve’s.

Everyone helped Ciel while she was out…

Her gaze drifted away to the brown bag she left under the counter, weapons and supplies spilled out to reveal its contents. Mixed emotions rose to the surface of her mind - confusion, annoyance, bitterness? Where were they coming from? Everyone had their own things to do and she happened to place work before leisurely activities. Baking just wasn’t something she did. 

Elesis refocused herself. The look Ciel gave her lacked the judgment her father’s men had when she first joined the army, but that didn’t alleviate the anxiety or the restlessness on being caught in a moment of vulnerability.

“Sometimes, we need to rest,” Ciel said. “Elsword is getting firewood and Rena should be back with food in the next hour. You did more than enough. Let us do the work too.”

“Is that what you think I’m worried about?” Elesis asked.

“You look like you had as much sleep as Add,” he transferred the newly decorated cookies onto a platter.

Her muscles tensed in a burning pain as if protesting with the redhead shaking her head. Was she that easy to read? Did joining the El Search Party weaken her composure and ability to keep her thoughts to herself?

“Then why did you ask me to help you?”

“You needed a break,” Ciel shrugged.

How thoughtful of him. Was this how people relaxed after training?

Even without her vision, she smelled the sweet aroma floating around her. It reminded her of the home she hasn’t returned since she was thirteen. Was it still a cluttered mess without her being there to remind Elsword to keep it tidy? With both siblings gone, would the villagers take over and keep it clean? Her shoulders slumped. Perhaps it was time to consider returning home once they sorted out the problems with the El.

“I don’t know how you do this every day,” Elesis voiced her thoughts.

Cotton-like texture brushed against her hand and redirected her attention to Ciel handing her a clothed bag. Elesis peeked inside to see dozens of cookies and a loaf of bread with dried meat and berries pooling at the bottom of the bag. 

“That should be enough to share with Elsword and the others,” Ciel explained in response to the questioning look from the Empire Sword. “Dinner won’t be ready for another few hours, so that will suffice.”

“Thanks,” Elesis relaxed her shoulders and yawned. “But I think I’ll go take a nap first. Tell Elsword to leave some for me.”

He chuckled, “Of course.”

If not for the contract with Lu, Ciel could have opened a bakery for a living if he wished to, yet the man led a life as a hitman prior to meeting the former demon monarch. He baked loaves of bread every week on top of being a battle butler. Determination and composure kept him running and was comparable to the soldiers she used to train in Velder.

As unorthodox as he was to the red knight, she appreciated him as an addition to their group when he looked over them. That was something she could understand despite their differences. Before she left, she took a step back to look at the cookie she helped the butler decorate. Even if it looked nothing like what she hoped for, it was enough to tell her there were other things to look forward to after a hard day’s worth of work. 


End file.
